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Edmund Campion
Edmund Campion a young man of extraordinary courage was convinced of his Faith that he did not hesitate to lay down his life in its defence. Beatified by Leo XIII on December 29 1886 he was canonized by Pope Paul VI amidst great rejoicing on October 25 1970 a red-letter day for three Campion Schools in India.
Edmund Campion was born on January 25 1540 in London where his father ran a bookshop. As his father was unable to defray his school expenses a wealthy London guildsman volunteered generously to pay his fees. Young Edmund was very talented and did brilliantly first as a schoolboy and later on as a student of St. John’s College Oxford. He was repeatedly chosen to speak in the name of his school and his college on formal public occasions as for instance when Queen Mary made her State entry into London at the reburial of Lady Amy Dudley and at the funeral of St Thomas White the founder of St. John’s College. At eighteen he was appointed a Senior at St John’s College Oxford a distinction rarely bestowed at such a young age. Though young in years his personality cast its spell over his fellow-students who started imitating his gait and making him the centre of their admiration. In particular his joyousness of heart sparkled in his words and radiated from his person.
After obtaining his doctorate he lectured in Oxford with such eloquence that even Queen Elizabeth went to hear him and was taken up so much by his elegance and forceful speech that he became her favorite. Soon he acquired fame as a great educationist and became one of the most sought-for lectures of the famous Oxford University. However he aimed at higher things and he left for Rome on foot to join the Society of Jesus funded by Ignatius of Loyola about the time of his birth. His occupations were many and varied including teaching in the class room. Occasionally he was called upon to display his great oratorical skill on some first-class day. He wrote a number of plays for acting on the college stage among them a drama that caused somewhat of a stir in Prague where it was restaged the next day at the Emperor’s request.
In 1950 Father Campion was sent by his Superior-General to England where he published the famous Challenge in which shines forth his burning Faith. His religious convictions provoked hatred among the rulers of England who determined that every effort should be made to seize Campion. Meanwhile Fr. Campion continued sharing his religious beliefs despite all difficulties and threats to life. While he was thus constantly on the move he spent his pare moments in writing “The Ten Reasons Set before the famous men of our Universities.” More difficult than the writing of the Ten Reasons was its printing. Though it was barely 20,000 words in length the printing took several weeks on a primitive press set up in a house hidden in the woods but easily accessible from London and Oxford to Fr. Edmund for supervision of work. On Tuesday June 27 1580 Commencement Day 400 copies of it were distributed on the benches of the University of Oxford where Campion’s name was still well remembered by many and his “Ten Reasons” made a tremendous sensation. This caused an upheaval among the rulers who redoubled their efforts to capture the writer. However Fr. Campion acted with commendable prudence and succeeded for some time in covering up his tracks. On July 16 1580 he fell into the hands of his enemies betrayed by a wretch who had shamefully denied his Faith. Fr. Campion spent 4 months and 9 days in indescribable misery first in solitary confinement then in Little Ease a cell which is still an object of interest in the Tower dungeons in which a man could neither stand nor lie down at full length but had perforce to remain crouching for days on end.
It is said that Queen Elizabeth had him brought to Leicester House and tried to bribe him into denying his Faith with promise of high preferment. When he refused he was taken back to his prison cell and only left it to be tortured with such cruelty that he was permanently crippled. But he remained unwavering in his constancy. Then his enemies started spreading all sorts of rumors about him: Campion had given in, had betrayed the names of the people with whom he had stayed, had taken his own life. For sometime his friends were thrown into despair and shame. But there came a day when truth prevailed. Father Campion and seven others were tried in Westminster Hall. He had committed no suicide, he had betrayed no one, he had stood steadfast in the Faith ‘in spite of dungeons fire and sword’ like a rock buffeted in vain by howling winds and hurling waves. After being cruelly raked it was proposed to him to hold a disputation with some of the most famous protestant divines being allowed only to answer the objections and not to attack his adversaries. Although in a dying state he triumphed with such wounderful success that they hastened on his death.
On the day of the trial November 20 1581 Fr. Campion conducted the defence both of himself and of his companions. Before he began his pleading he could not raise his mangled hand and arm to take the customary oath and one of his companions held it up for him while he pronounced the words calling upon God that he would speak the truth and nothing but the truth. He spoke long and earnestly but in vain. But his concluding words have come down to us and shall for ever ring along the corridors of time:
“….. In condemning us you condemn all our ancestors….. all that was once the glory of England the island of saints. For what we have taught however you may qualify it with the odious name of treason that they did not also uniformly teach? ….. To be condemned with theses lights – not of England only but of the world - by their degenerate descendants in both gladness and joy to us. God Lives: posterity will live! Their judgment is not so liable to corruption as that of those who are now going to sentence us to death”
Fr. Campion celebrated patron of Campion School died most gloriously being hanged at Tyburn London on December 1 1581. There stands today in Oxford city among the many other homes of learning a building called “Campion Hall”. In India too three school in Trichy Bombay and Bhopal are dedicated to his name.
It is our earnest hope that the students of these institutions inspired by his invincible courage and glowing faith will walk in his footsteps and add lustre to his name. |
